Wednesday, April 25, 2007

As Ian would say, AWWWW, MAN! It was one of those doctor's appointments. I got my last drain out (YEA!) but was told I couldn't drive until the 7th of May. The doctor even pulled out a calendar to see which date would work for her. Bummer. She said it was because I had a hernia repaired, not because of the rest of the surgery, and she literally doesn't want me to bust a gut (he he he). So, it was one of those Awwwww, man appointments. At least I got the drain out and am healing up. Not to get all of these steri-strips off - that's not a fun thought but has to be done soon - very soon. At least the nurse gave me the option of doing it at home in a shower (no baths for...a long while...sob) before she started pulling them all off. Makes my skin crawl to even think about it, so I'd like to do it in the comfort of my own home, thank you very much! So, back to the drawing board as far as resuming my daily routine. Oh, well, tomorrow's another day!

Monday, April 23, 2007

I bought my first new bra today. Actually, it's a sports bra, so I'm not really sure if it counts, but it sets me free from that nasty velcro strapped, adjustable surgical bra, size 5. Yeah, it simply said Size 5 on it. I guess they do that so you aren't completely freaked out at what size you are after surgery.

Anyway, I'm officially an XL now. I haven't fit into a bra this small since high school. I'm so excited that I can wear this! It's a racer back bra, and I don't know that I've ever worn one of these (at least as far back as I can remember). It's so much more comfortable than the surgical bra - is very soft and snug. Best part is that it keeps my new little friends happy. I bought three - grey, black, and white. Yeah, not very adventurous as Tom said, but hey, baby steps man, baby steps. I'll go after that bright teal, yellow, and whatever other color after I want to take them out for a spin. For now I just need a place to tuck my new friends away - someplace that they feel happy.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll get my last drain out. It's so itchy now and while I'm still draining (yeah, kinda gross there - terribly sorry) it really needs to come out. So, I'll call tomorrow and hopefully will have good news to report. They've done a great job but it's time to go.

Otherwise, I'm cutting down on pain meds. Only taking Tylenol now - and one Percocet at night to help get settled for bed. Otherwise I mostly feel really sore (all over though) like I exercised way too much. The incisions are itchy at points and will continue to be, but the pain levels drop each day. I'm still extremely weak - you don't realize how many things you use those abdominals for. I'm going to be so much nicer to them now that I've had them all fixed up.

So, it's off to bed for me now - the Percocet is doing it's job so I can lie down. Tomorrow we're off to the park, and it should be another beautiful day here!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

So on top of having my insides all in different places, my calendar in a different place, and my living space in a different place (well, confined to a single floor in my house), my bookmarks list is also all in a different place. This is not a big deal, but a slightly disconcerting thing. I imported all my bookmarks into Internet Explorer - my Firefox is misbehaving since my computer is misbehaving and it was driving me nuts. So, I had to switch browsers (haven't mentioned it here but I HATE IE) in order NOT to drive myself completely nutso. Again, not a big deal, but the bookmarks are all in a different order, and half of the blogs I read are called something else now. Weird, but true. I had them in a certain order in which I checked them - those I check most frequently at the top, and so on down the list. But now I can't even remember which ones I read most often (that might be the drugs though) and so today I didn't even open up a single blog - and today was the first day I felt up to it. So, crawling back onto my couch, I leave the reading of the blogs for another day.

I'm a little behind on pictures, but here's a post-op picture, a happy picture, a well medicated picture, before I realized that the person in the other half of the room was going to have an all night party in her bed picture. Big smiles from me - no pain there, and I'm sure I was asleep three seconds after the picture was taken. Until the irritating folks next to me started their big gathering at 8ish (I'm now demanding a private room - didn't even think to ask for one this time) I was all happy and dozing. Poor Tom even had to come all the way back to the hospital (well, it's like 8 minutes from our house) to rescue me from these people and demand more pain meds - any later pics you might see are me growling at the nasty night nurse.

So, enjoy the smiling Suzie - she's still here and healing up at a good pace. Even cut my pain meds in half today - Woo hoo! (Although they are good pills...) So enjoy the picture!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The human body is an amazing thing. I'm five days out from major surgery and am sitting here at home, typing on a computer (it's a laptop and I'm heavily drugged and this most likely will be all I do today, but still!). The surgery went very well. The surgeon even repaired a hernia left from when I had my gall bladder out 6 years ago (that guy really was a butcher!) and did a bang up job on my top and bottom (not the actual bottom - that's still all here). I'm feeling a bit like I was hit by a truck, but thankfully Patti and Henry are here to do basically everything that I would normally be doing, including child wrangling, so we're in good shape. I'm not allowed to do much of anything, including standing up straight, but I was released yesterday to take a show, which I'll do tonight. I'm also still not allowed (nor in any shape to) drive, climb stairs, or lift more than about 5 lbs. So, I'm healing up and feeling very good about the whole thing. The first two days were quite painful, and each day since has gotten a little better.

Considering I went from a size 40FF to a large B / small C cup (not sure what size just yet) the boys are TINY! They are so cute and perky now - it's WILD! I've never been able to see the bottom of them without lifting them up, and now I can. It's such an odd sensation. And I could go on about these guys forever...

But for now I'll leave it at this so I can sleep some more. I have the before picture and will get some others up very soon so you guys can see where I started from. Then, in a few more weeks after the rest of the drains and bandages come off (two drains out yesterday - two more out probably next week) I'll get some after pics. The swelling will take up to a year to settle as will my new perky guys, but you can get the gist from clothed pictures!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

So I'm off on my grand adventure. I'll get the "before" pics posted here in a few days - too short on time now. But, I'm so excited and not a bit nervous (must be that I don't quite know what I'm in for - HAH!). So, I'll see you back here in a few days hopefully! Wish me luck!

Monday, April 09, 2007

As I sit here with my bra straps digging into my sides, I wonder what it will be like after my reduction surgery on Thursday. I also sit here thinking of all the things that I need to do. HAH! That's a list too long to go into, but it has brought up a few curious things. I need to take "before" pictures - clothed and unclothed. that's something I never thought I'd do. I do now have a Will and an Advanced Medical Directive, so that part is done (and we've needed that for a while). We've paid for most of the surgery - still have to get the anesthesiologist covered, but that's the last of it. Let's see - have all my post-op meds, Tom's folks are on their way to help with the kids, and I'm almost ready to teach my class tomorrow night. Need to do a few more loads of laundry, but otherwise I think that's it!

So, now I can get excited about this thing! I will get rid of the FF part of me, as well as all the extra that the kiddos "contributed" to my belly. I can stop wearing bras designed for women MUCH larger than me, as well as pants designed for women much larger than me. I wear pants four or five sizes larger than I need because I can't squish all that extra belly into the size that fits my legs and waist. My pants hang down now, so I look like I don't know how to dress (well, I don't, but that's a different story!). In about two months from now I should be able to walk (upright hopefully by then!) into a regular store and purchase regular sized clothing. As for the bras, I've only purchased bras from a specialty store - even had to order them from Texas after we moved here. I should be able to walk into any department store and buy a bra that fits. No more special ordering or $55 bras (unless they are very cute!)

So, wish me luck in getting the laundry done and the pictures taken. hopefully the class tomorrow will go quickly, and then Wednesday can be spent being excited. Tom's going to be in Florida Tues - Wed, so he'll avoid that over-caffeinated Suzie (without caffeine!) until he gets back Wed PM. And then keep me in your thoughts that all goes well and that I recover quickly. I'll get the pictures all up together once I am on the path to recovery and standing upright.

I'll also get some Easter pictures up tomorrow - we had snow on Friday and it's been unseasonably cold this Easter. But, Aunt Sue and my Dad were here, so it was a blast.

Monday, April 02, 2007

I realized after we moved to the DC area that things here were very different. While Virginia has a TON to offer, there were certainly some things that I missed about Texas. I was in Texas a week or two ago and snapped a few pictures of some of those things.

I am certainly not a Monet or a Picasso. Nor am I Joe's Painting service. In fact, I'm on the blacklist - those folks who shouldn't be painting at all. I'll show you an example...or two...or three.

So this was a little oops. Not terrible, just a little bump off of the edge. I did tape here, but not really sure what happened. O.K. That we can fix. Let's take a look at the next one.

Now, this one is also a little oops. I was getting the wall painted and the roller slipped a bit. Again, not a big deal, easily corrected. Well, this wasn't the only ceiling oops - there's more...

This one is a bit more obvious as it's right on the corner opposite the door when you walk in the room. It pretty much announces itself to anyone coming in - "HEY - LOOK AT ME! I'M A PURPLE PAINT SPOT ON THE CEILING!" Sad part is - this spot is all of 24" from the spot in the previous picture. Maybe I can claim that was the last corner I did and call them tired mistakes. Let's see what's left: Yeah. This has nothing to do with being tired. This is all about a bad tape job. I guess that my painting technique itself isn't the problem, but my tape job is. Well, looking at the picture it may be both. Geez. I not only leaked under the tape, but I also apparently went right over the top as well. I really dig the purple but now I need some white to cover up these spots. They are all waaaaay too obvious to ignore, and since it is purple on white, it speaks to me whenever I enter the room.

So, like I said above, I'm on the banned list...until the spirit moves me to paint another room. Heeeyyyyy...wouldn't the living room look nice in sand?